Apartment 8D
by astairandvienna
Summary: The separation from Carly brings Sam and Freddie together. One-shot.


So I'm new to this, just tell me what you think if you like it. I don't really like the ending either, but I had to end it someway, so here it is.  
blah blah, I don't own anything.

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Apartment 8D

Spencer gets married when Carly is 17. With every kiss and intimate moment she walks in on, she feels like living at Bushwell is an intrusion to her brother. Her granddad welcomes her to Yakima just as her nephew is born (and she thinks that her brother is finally getting the whole family package he's always wanted—husband, wife, and kid.)

The separation from Carly brings Sam and Freddie together. Sam finds herself taking the bus downtown to the apartment building three or four times a week, only to realize that the person she came to see doesn't live there anymore.

Sometimes she realizes this as she gets off the bus and looks up to the eighth floor, or sometimes when she actually makes it to the door, her hand lifted to the knob to open it, only to notice that the door is locked and the extra key isn't there. So when 8C locks her out, she turns around and there's 8D and Freddie standing in the door jam, his body leaning against the frame. "I miss her too," he says to her, and she nods and comes inside and sits on his couch and eats his food and calls his mother crazy.

So Sam stops showing up at Bushwell for her estranged friend. Slowly, she goes to see the dork, and slum on his couch, eat his food. She takes the bus or walks or makes him meet her halfway, rides the elevator up eight floors, walks down the hall, (and this is where it changes) makes a left and turns towards his door. He sort of welcomes her company. He never had many friends, and with Carly starting a new life in Yakima, he _really_ doesn't have many friends.

Two years pass. Carly fades from their lives. Spencer sells the apartment to move to the 'burbs. No longer do the two have any connection to the Shay family. Sam still comes over though; Sam never stopped coming over. When the new family moves in across the way, Freddie views them with skeptical eyes, knowing that they could never live up to anything that went on inside 8C. Sam sticks gummy bears to their car, hoping the paint will chip off.

Two more years, they're 21. Down at that bar on Corbin, Sam's doing shots, while Freddie stares at the bottom of a water glass and gets through two bowls of pretzels. Freddie brings her back to 8D, half supporting her, half dragging her. He's placing her on the couch when she starts trying to convince him that she's not drunk. Halfway through the backwards alphabet, she throws up on his shoes.

When he's 23, his mother sells 8D. (Marissa Benson buys a two bedroom out in the middle of Arizona and expects her son to be with her.) Sam comes over to "help Freddie pack," but really just watches him put his whole childhood into boxes while she eats the gluten and wheat free pancakes Mrs. Benson made for her son. Sam makes fun of everything he puts into the cardboard, and once or twice he laughs along with her.

It's one of the last days the Benson's own the apartment. Sam comes over to "help pack" again, and he's asking her to pass him the masking tape when she abruptly states that everyone leaves her. "My dad, Carly—now you," she says to him. She's fidgeting with the tape and his hand is still out-stretched to take it from her. He's shocked at her display of feelings, but looks at her with sad eyes and raises his other arm. (This may be the first time they genuinely hug and show what they really feel since the first kiss.)

8D's keys are handed over to Lewburt at 4 p.m. a week later.

They no longer have any ties to the Shay's, or to Bushwell, or to each other.

It takes Sam two weeks to decide that Seattle isn't her home anymore. She buys a one way bus ticket to Arizona, and shows up at Benson's door.  
"What are you doing here?" he'll ask her, when he opens the door, shocked to see her.  
"Nice place Benson," she'll answer, ignoring the question, "but it's no 8D."


End file.
